Products and Their Smart Lighting Equivalent

July 15, 2016

It's Friday, so we'll have a little bit of fun. I've listed a bunch of things that I think somewhat represents a unique aspect of each type of smart light. Obviously, there's a bit of overlap between all of these smart lights, but this post isn't exactly scientific.

LUXURY CAR

You want style. You might not necessarily need it, but you want something that is meticulously designed, something cool. As Michael Fassbender noted in Aaron Sorkin’s rendition of Steve Jobs, people are willing to pay more for certain plane tickets even though “Coach lands on the runway the same time as first class.” You are the person stepping out of first class. You want quality and you’re willing to slap some cash to prove it.

You are the Philips Hue.

DROPBOX

As one academic study described it, ‘it just works’. You are someone looking for a product that can do most of the things a smart light should be able to do, and do them extremely well. You want cool, but you don’t need the frills. You don’t need granular access to data. You just want it to work, and you’re going to pay as much as it takes but no more.

You are the emberlight socket.

INJECTION MOLDS

Now I don’t know if you know how the injection molding process works, but it’s really expensive at the beginning and incredibly cheap at scale. And that reflects your philosophy in life; you’re willing to pay a hefty down payment at the beginning because you know you’re going to go big and buy smart lights for your entire house. Injection molding is also a lot more complicated to understand than Apple products or Dropbox, but you’re willing to get through the complex setup to get your desired results.

You are the GE Link Connected LED.

THE CHROMEBOOK

Yeah, the Chromebook is lacking in some fancy features, such as the ability to run Photoshop or any Adobe software. It’s also lacking in some pretty important features too, because it’s pretty much useless without internet. But who cares about features when you can get it at Black Friday bargain prices?